Belarus detains election observers, breaks into homes as next vote looms, watchdog claims

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Security services in Belarus are breaking into apartments and detaining people in their workplaces across the country as they carry out hundreds of searches among election observers ahead of next year's vote, the Belarusian human rights center Viasna said Tuesday.

It's the latest crackdown against human rights and democracy figures ahead of parliamentary and local elections scheduled for February. Activists’ phones are reportedly being checked and they are forced to sign warnings against "promoting extremist activities." The charge has previously been levelled at democracy activists and carries up to seven years in prison.

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Representatives from the main intelligence service, the KGB, which has retained its Soviet name, are forcing activists who were observers in the last presidential election to record "repentance videos."

There was no comment from authorities.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends an annual press conference in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Aug. 9, 2021. (Pavel Orlovsky/BelTA photo via AP)

Belarus was rocked by protests during President Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed re-election in August 2020, which the opposition and the West condemned as fraudulent. Since then, authorities have detained more than 35,000 people, many of them tortured in custody while others fled the country.

Viasna human rights activist Pavel Sapelka called the latest searches "another attack on civil society and the authorities’ revenge for independent observers' activity in the 2020 elections."

"We are seeing an increase in the level of repression in Belarus ahead of the elections, and the authorities are again trying to intimidate all active people," Sapelka said. "Human rights activists and volunteers are already forced to act almost underground but are continuing their work."

At the end of November, searches took place at homes of relatives of opposition leaders and activists who had already left the country.

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According to Viasna, there are 1,474 political prisoners behind bars, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.